8. Jim Croche

23. He's the first one that came to my mind, also.

We lost him just when his career was getting started. Who knows what his music would have become as he grew. I used to have an 8-track that he recorded with Ingrid before he was "discovered". It was very sweet and poignant.

Wow! Talk about a coincidence. I'm listening to Pandora and just now "You Don't Mess Around With Jim" started playing.

12. James Michener

I've read about 90% of his books, some of which...like "Hawaii", "Centennial", and "Chesapeake" are long and satisfying to the point that I have had to buy new copies of them every few years because I wear them out from reading them over and over.